I can't seem to get Red Hook out of my mind. I didn't know until last weekend that Redhook marks the end of the Erie Canal. That families who worked the transport barges on the canal came down to Redhook to winter and put their children here in school. Then when spring came, … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2009
Red Hook, Brooklyn today…
Sitting at the water's edge, it is a noisy world. Everywhere there are sounds. A helicopter churns overhead as a cruiser rushing past. The ferry streams by and somewhere in Red Hook there is a fire. I hear the siren. Two guys behind me, talking trash about their jobs. In the … [Read more...]
Our “Staycation”
Proust said that travel isn't about seeing a new place. It's about seeing with new eyes. Larry and I both had a week off, but we didn't go anywhere. We had what Oprah calls a "staycation." We ate in a Basque restaurant and drank Viennese coffee in Manhattan, but our best time … [Read more...]
The Best You Can
The Tahitians don't have a word that means "art." The closest expression in their language translates to something like "doing the best you can." Ever since I heard this it has become a kind of mantra to me. I try and apply it to my own work, to my students and anyone who … [Read more...]
Reflections on the Cowbird: Traveling with A Child
When bison roamed the Great Plains, the cowbird followed them. It lived off the insects on the buffalos' backs so as the buffalo traveled, so did the cowbird. Because of its itinerant existence, the cowbird made an interesting adaptation. It laid its eggs in the nests of other … [Read more...]